Letter 14: 17 October 1803

Physical form: One sheet folded into 2 leaves (18.8 x 23 cm)
Cover: Miss Rickards / Church Row / Hampstead / Middlesex
PM: 12o’Clock / OC 18 / 1803 N.EY[?]
[x]o’Clock / OC 18 / EV
TwoPyPost / Unpaid / Stoke Newing[ton]
WM: S LAY / 1800
SM: Misc MS 4355

My dear Miss Rickards,

When I thank you for the letter which I received from Ramsgate,

⁽¹⁾

I am conscious that you have a right to chide me for not having yet answered it. For some time past indeed I have been on the point of writing, but thought it better to wait till I knew you were returned lest between both places, I should miss you. I am very glad you have ^had^ so pleasant a party at Ramsgate, & enjoyed yourselves in so much security. I daresay the resident inhabitants of the watering places take as much care to keep off alarms ^of invasion^

⁽²⁾

as the inhabitants of Philadelphia or New York do to suppress or mitigate the notices of the yellow fever, when it is among them— M^r Barbauld & myself spent one week of quiet & domestic enjoyment, which was also brightened by fine weather, at Epsom

⁽³⁾

with the Carrs. I verily believe the air from those fine open downs is as bracing & healthy as any sea air between Scarborough & Dover—the country is not equal in beauty to the Paradise of
Leath-

[fol 1^v] Leatherhead or Norbury Park,

⁽⁴⁾

yet the extensive sheep walks & open corn fields, the beautiful turf of the race ground, & the neighbourhood of a park or two afforded excursions sufficiently pleasant. One day we dined in the open air upon Box hill

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—The Ibettsons

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have got a very pretty house at Dorking.— We are all here pretty well, except my niece who however is not worse. Hannah Kinder

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is returned; very opportunely to chear the spirits of her sister, who was very low after parting with your Cousins.

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They carried along with them our cordial esteem & sincerest wishes for their happiness wherever their future lot may be cast— We dined to day with M^r Belsham,

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I am glad to find he will have eight pupils this half year, among which will be M^r Berkeley’s two youngest sons

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— And now let me proceed to the request I have to make, which is that you, & M^rs Rickards & Miss Harrop would spend a day with us, now you are returned. Will Tuesday the 25^th be convenient? I have written to M^r Ward

⁽¹¹⁾

to ask the same favour, thinking that you might come together, & therefore if that day should not suit either of you, & you can fix together any day in that week, Monday & Saturday excepted
let

[fol 2^r] let me know & it will be the same thing to me—I hope to see both M^rs Rickards & you improved by your excursion, but improved or not I long to see you & you must come, so for the present Adieu. M^r Barbauld joins me in aff^e Compliments to M^rs Rickards & Miss Harrop. I am dearest Lydia

Affectionately Your’s

AL Barbauld

Stoke Newington
Oct 17^th

Notes

1. Ramsgate, on the coast of Kent, was then a fashionable "watering place." [back]

2. "alarms of invasion": See note 3 to Letter 13. ALB regarded invasion alarms skeptically (ALBVE, 460–61). [back]

3. Epsom: A spa in Surrey, site of fashionable horse races. [back]

4. Leatherhead is a town near Dorking and hence near Box Hill. Norbury Park was the estate of William Lock (see Note 3 to Letter 1). [back]

5. Box Hill: See Note 1 to Letter 1. ALB recorded her fondness for Box Hill in a poem (Poem 119 in The Poems, Revised). [back]

6. Not identified. A Mr. and Mrs. "Ibetson" attended a Barbauld evening party on 11 June 1802 (RB, Diary). [back]

7. Hannah Kinder was a daughter of ALB's in-law John Kinder, draper. To her ALB addressed Poem 140 (The Poems, Revised). [back]

8. "your Cousins": Not identified. [back]

9. "Mr. Belsham": The Rev. Thomas Belsham. See Note 7 to Letter 11. [back]

10. Mr. Berkeley: Not identified. [back]

11. A Mr. and Mrs. Ward took tea with the Barbaulds and Mr. Belsham on 22 June 1802 (RB, Diary). [back]

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